Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Getting Started:
Object-oriented Programming

Using the COMPILER system handle

The COMPILER system handle provides the following attributes, specifically for compiling class files:

MULTI-COMPILE attribute
CLASS-TYPE attribute

MULTI-COMPILE attribute

The MULTI-COMPILE attribute on the COMPILER system handle is a read-write attribute that improves the performance of the compiler in certain situations. Normally, the compiler compiles all class files in a class hierarchy. The compiler does not try to determine if the files in the class hierarchy have changed since the last compilation.

To improve performance, you can set the MULTI-COMPILE attribute to TRUE. This causes the compiler to only compile those class files within a class hierarchy that it has not already compiled since MULTI-COMPILE was set to TRUE. Your build application can set this attribute to TRUE when you are building all class files within an application, and no files are going to be modified during the process. While this attribute is TRUE, the Progress session caches class and interface compilations such that when a class or interface is thereafter compiled, Progress will not recompile any classes or interfaces that are in the cache. Progress flushes this cache when MULTI-COMPILE is set to FALSE.

The following example demonstrates the use of the MULTI-COMPILE attribute:

COMPILER:MULTI-COMPILE = TRUE. COMPILE "C:\acme\myObjs\CustObj.cls". COMPILE "C:\acme\myObjs\NECustomer.cls". COMPILER:MULTI-COMPILE = FALSE.

In this example, any class files that have been compiled during the compilation of acme.myObjs.CustObj.cls and also participate in the class hierarchy of acme.myObjs.NECustomer.cls, are not compiled again during the compilation of acme.myObjs.NECustomer.cls.

Caution: Leaving this attribute set to TRUE causes the Progress session to ignore any changes to classes that have already been compiled during the session while the attribute was set.

CLASS-TYPE attribute

The CLASS-TYPE attribute on the COMPILER system handle is a read-only attribute that identifies the class type name of the class file that was compiled by the most recently executed COMPILE statement. For example, after the application compiles a class file CustObj.cls that contains the CLASS statement, CLASS acme.myObjs.CustObj, the COMPILER:CLASS-TYPE attribute contains the string, "acme.myObjs.CustObj". If the last file compiled with the COMPILE statement is not a class file, this attribute is set to the empty string ("").